Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

There are two layers to this novella. Readers can see the story for the plot, or they can understand the story as an allegory.

1. What do you know about allegories?

Teaching Suggestion: Allegories are an important genre in literature, and books that double as adult and child reading are prime examples of allegory. Understanding allegory will open students to the layers of symbolic meaning in this novella.

• “What is an Allegory?”: a breakdown of allegory and how the symbols work within it from Oregon State
• “Plato's Allegory of the Cave”: a TED Ed video analyzing one of philosophy’s most famous allegories

2. What do you know about Europe in the years before and during World War II?

Teaching Suggestion: Though World War II history isn’t the only underlying allegory in this novella, some knowledge of World War II will help students understand certain characters and symbols.

• “Antoine de Saint-Exupery - French Aviator and Author”: a mini-biography about the author and the period in which he lived
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